HOME MADE ICE CREAM

One of the vivid memories that I have of summer and holidays when I was a kid was making home made ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa DuKates. We would gather under a huge old oak tree--felled by a serious storm in the spring of this year--and the adults would crank the freezer until it was impossible to crank any more. The ice cream, a custard type concoction, I think, that my grandma cooked and then chilled, would be deliciously cold and sweet. Grandma always made everything extra sweet. A spoon could stand alone in her iced tea. I remember the headache that would ensue from the first taste of that cold, sweet desert. I don't suppose that I ever have a cold rush headache that I don't think about those days.

One of the memorable things about making ice cream for me is getting to sit on top of the freezer while an adult cranked it. After the ice cream began to freeze and the freezer offered some resistance to cranking it was a task to hold the freezer still until the mix was frozen to proper consistency. One of those hand made woven rag rugs would be thrown over the top of the freezer and a child would get to sit on top of it to help keep the freezer from moving around. I especially liked getting to sit on the freezer and feel the cold as it radiated up through the rug and into my skinny little bottom--yes, it once was skinny.

Those days are only a memory now but home made ice cream is not. I guess I wanted to give my children as many of my pleasant childhood memories as I could so we always had an ice cream freezer since early on in our family life. Of course, we moved up to the electric model that does not require a cranker, or a crank, whichever the case may be. We often made ice cream over the years and I became pretty good with turning out a good product. It was often accompanied by that delicious Texas sheet cake which I could produce from start to finish in 40 minutes complete with fudgy frosting or sherry cake, a sort of light version of pound cake with sherry for flavoring and a dusting of powdered sugar on top. Oh what memories that brings back. If I made the ice cream for guests someone would invariably bring up cranking the ice cream freezer during childhood days. My respone to that was that we would have a whole lot less home made ice cream if someone had to crank the freezer and it might even be a lost art by now were it not for the electric appliance.

Well, I have said all of this to say that last night I made my first freezer of ice cream in several years. Since living in Florida I had not had a freezer until I acquired one at a family yard sale last fall. It was brand new and a super 6 qt. size--bigger than I had ever owned. Yesterday my sister-in-law called and asked if I would make a freezer of ice cream for a family gathering which was being held last night honoring my cousin and wife, John and Gwen Ahlemann, who are visiting from Memphis. I about did a tail spin because I don't have any of my recipes from my life prior to divorce. For that reason I feel like a cripple when it comes to culinary quests. Anyway, I started consulting all of my cookbooks and the internet and could not come up with a recipe that seemed like what I wanted so, as I do when push comes to shove, I made up a concoction that seemed palatable to me. Actually, the cook books had helped me to know the sugar to milk product ratio and that was a start. In the end it turned out quite good, the freezer worked just great and now I will be happy to try it again.

So, dear readers, have a fantastic holiday weekend, be safe and find someone to love. If you can't find someone to love, love the one you're with. I'm planning this afternoon to go see the just released THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway among others. It looks like it will be fun.